MANCHESTER — The library board is seeking town funds to move forward on the design of a new public library on Main Street.

"Now that the possible new library site feasibility study is complete and the status presented to the town board of directors, who seemed mostly favorable to it, the next step would be to have schematic designs with a detailed cost estimate developed," library advisory board Chairwoman Donnamarie Nakos wrote to Mayor Jay Moran and the town board of directors recently.

"This would provide vital information if this issue is to go to referendum in 2016," Nakos wrote.

Presented to directors in April, the feasibility study focused on the site of a privately owned commercial building and the Forest Street municipal parking lot and was funded with library trust money. Trust funds that are potentially available for detailed design work total about $75,000, about half the amount needed, Nakos wrote.

"Our townspeople would want to see these more detailed plans and estimates, thus, we would like to know if the town could commit other possible funding resources for the remainder of the cost," she wrote.

Moran said Monday that the library issue "is moving from the back burner to the front burner." He said the library board's request will be on the directors' June 9 meeting agenda.

In 2012, voters rejected a proposed $12.5 million expansion and renovation of Mary Cheney Library on Main Street. In a 2014 survey, however, a majority of respondents said they would support a new library at another site, and most favored a downtown location. The targeted site at Main and Forest streets "was the only logical downtown spot," library Director Doug McDonough has said.

Advocates of a new library cite the current building's lack of space for quiet study and public meetings, inadequate parking and difficult access to many books. The library also needs significant renovation, including handicapped accessibility improvements.

At the April directors meeting, an architectural firm representative showed images of a three-story, nearly 57,000-square-foot library. About 8,500 square feet of the total was marked for storage. A rough estimate of the cost was about $20 million, not including the purchase price of the privately owned Tong building and demolition costs.

Asked at the meeting how much library space Manchester should have, McDonough said a little more than one square foot per capita is typical for many communities. In Manchester's case, that would be about 58,000 square feet. Mary Cheney Library is about 26,000 square feet, and the Whiton Memorial branch is about 13,000 square feet, so the town is well below the unofficial standard.